Science, art, or somewhere inbetween

MACS 40700
University of Chicago

April 10, 2017

Tufte’s world

  • Core purpose of visualization is to communicate quantitative information
    • “Above all else show the data”

  • Data-ink - non-erasable core of a graphic

    \[\text{Data-ink ratio} = \frac{\text{data-ink}}{\text{total ink used to print the graphic}}\]

  • What should we consider to be part of the “data-ink”?

What is integral?

What is integral?

Starting point

Remove panel box

Remove minor grid lines

Remove all grid lines

Remove tick marks

Use serif font

Chart junk

  • Vibrating moire effects
  • The grid
  • The duck
  • Asserts all chart junk is bad - on what basis?

Line plot

Minimal line plot

Boxplot

Minimal boxplot

Minimal boxplot

Barchart

Default themes

p + theme_bw(base_size = base_size)

p + theme_dark(base_size = base_size)

p + theme_classic(base_size = base_size)

p + theme_minimal(base_size = base_size)

p + theme_void(base_size = base_size)

Minimal barchart

Bivariate scatterplot

Range-frame graph

With a quartile plot

When is redundancy better?

Traditional bar chart of crime in the city of San Francisco, 2009-10. Source: Visualizing Time with the Double-Time Bar Chart

Double-time bar chart of crime in the city of San Francisco, 2009-10. Source: Visualizing Time with the Double-Time Bar Chart

Minimalism in practice

Chart from Harvard magazine. Source: Involuntary head-shaking is probably not an intended consequence of data visualization

Minimalism in practice

Redesigned chart from Harvard magazine. Source: Involuntary head-shaking is probably not an intended consequence of data visualization

Experimental tests of Tufte’s claims

Source: Figure 2 from Bateman, Scott, et al. Useful junk?: the effects of visual embellishment on comprehension and memorability of charts. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2010.

Results

Source: Figures 4-6 from Bateman, Scott, et al. Useful junk?: the effects of visual embellishment on comprehension and memorability of charts. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, 2010.

Rethinking Tufte’s definition of visual excellence

  • Too many of Tufte’s claims are based on nothing
  • Hockey stick chart vs. xkcd on Earth’s temperature
  • Experimental design

Goals

  • Statistical graphics
    • Facilitate an understanding of problems in an applied problem
    • Direct readers to specific information
    • Allow readers to see for themselves
  • Infographics
    • Attractive
    • Grab one’s attention
    • Tell a story
    • Encourage viewer to think about a particular dataset

Wordles/wordclouds

## [1] "Using browser based authentication"

Wordles/wordclouds

Alternative to wordcloud

Health-care spending and life expectancy

Two Americas

Marrying age